The Publisher Says: He was born to greatness, the son of a druid bard and a princess of lost Atlantis. A trained warrior, blessed with the gifts of prophecy and song, he grew to manhood in a land ravaged by the brutal greed of petty chieftains and barbarian invaders.

Merlin: Respected, feared and hated by many, he was to have a higher destiny. for It was he who prepared the way for the momentous event that would unite the Island of the Mighty—the coming of Arthur Pendragon, Lord of the Kingdom of Summer.

My Review: Merlin's first-person narrative of how he makes Arthur into ARTHUR.

More Jesusy stuff. Now admittedly it's not the Roman Catholic horror that's called, very puzzlingly, Christianity (it's not); but the whole subject area grates on me when presented to me as An Undelniable, Inevitable Progressive Event. It wasn't. It made things a lot worse for a lot of people for over a millenium. (Religious wars pretty much non-stop from Western Imperial fall until...wait, until now! So TWO millenia!)

I liked Merlin's first-person narrative voice a lot more than the first book's omniscient narration. But the Atlantean horse pucky and the religious nonsense...well, had it not been for a cute boy wanting me to read his favorite books, I'd've dropped them fast.

This is an interesting take on the story of Merlin. Arthur is there, but only peripherally - THIS is Merlin's story.His boyhood, how he lost his land, adopting a new land and family - how he grew from a common child to a legend.It held my interest all the way through. ( )

Ten rings there are, and nine gold torcson the battlechiefs of old;Eight princely virtues, and seven sinsfor which a soul is sold;Six is the sum of earth and sky, of all things meek and bold;Five is the number of ships that sailedfrom Atlantis lost and cold;Four kings of the Westerlands were saved,three kingdoms now behold;Two came together in love and fear, in Llyonesse stronghold;One world there is, one God, and one birththe Druid stars foretold

Wikipedia in English

He was born to greatness, the son of a druid bard and a princess of lost Atlantis. A trained warrior, blessed with the gifts of prophecy and song, he grew to manhood in a land ravaged by the brutal greed of petty chieftains and barbarian invaders.

Merlin: Respected, feared and hated by many, he was to have a higher destiny. for It was he who prepared the way for the momentous event that would unite the Island of the Mighty—the coming of Arthur Pendragon, Lord of the Kingdom of Summer.